Abstract:

This paper addresses the innovative application of technology in the process of recruiting the best in the academic field from around the globe while contributing to climate change benefits, leading up to the Copenhagen conference. Living in a country that recently passed the Emissions Trading Scheme in parliament and an era where carbon credits, emissions trading and global warming have become pressing topics for the world, innovation and technology has been challenged to balance the pressing needs of an ultra modern six storey glass building in the heart of downtown Auckland, renowned for its ‘World Class Business School’ status largely attributed to very high calibre academic staff recruited from all corners of the globe.
While technology per se need not be reinvented each time, its application can be innovative several times over. A six sigma approach is used to identify and specify the goals related to recruitment of elite academic professionals from around the world while contributing to climate change by reducing long distance flights, saving recruitment costs and above all, introducing a new recruitment format which permits the active participation of all the members of the faculty in selecting and accepting a new team member.
Active participation of the whole team is enabled by the innovative configuration of a seminar room using twin high definition cameras and multiple projectors with the addition of a presenter’s floor mounted plasma display. The participant at the far end across the globe is brought ‘virtually’ into the seminar room to interact with all the members of the department in an informal manner as a prelude to a formal one hour academic presentation.
After question time, the candidate is ‘virtually’ whisked away to a separate private one-on-one environment where senior department personnel discuss more sensitive matters pertaining to recruitment terms and job offer.
Several candidates from around the globe are scheduled for interviews in this new format without the need to travel thousands of miles.
Upon selection and taking a carbon emission conscious direct flight to New Zealand, almost the last inhabited piece of land in the southern hemisphere, the new staff member meets a familiar team in person, experiencing the warmth and hospitality synonymous with the culture of the country.
The paper looks at the implications related to scheduling, where time differences, staff availability, room bookings and pre-event technical testing times are synchronised. Having to repeat the exercise for several candidates from different countries has led to the development of a robust process that includes keeping everyone informed.
A facility to record the live event with appropriate permissions caters for the inevitable occasional absence of a member from the recruitment team, who gets to replay the proceedings at a later time or date in order to contribute his opinion.
References to climate change initiatives, recruitment cost savings, and above all the international choice of best candidates, motivated the World Class University Of Auckland Business School to endorses this innovative recruitment method that reaches beyond managing elite recruitment virtually.

Keywords:

Innovative, technology, recruitment, climate, virtual, scheduling, staff, New Zealand.